Extraordinary Creatures
by AnimationNut
Summary: Margo had never thought much about the minions. They were simply there, like Kyle was simply there, and she didn't question it. But when she witnesses Kevin's ability to glow a bright green, she suddenly has the desire to know where the minions came from and how they came to work for her father. And who better to tell the story than Gru himself?


**I do not own Despicable Me.**

**Extraordinary Creatures**

Bacon.

That was the scent that roused Margo from her peaceful slumber. The delicious smell caused her stomach to rumble insistently, demanding it be fed. With a yawn the eleven-year old obeyed and sat up, feeling her nightstand table for her glasses. Her fingers touched upon the wire frames and she slipped them over her brown eyes. The first thing she saw was not a snoring Edith, like she had expected, but rather an empty bed. In fact, both of her sister's beds were empty.

Surprised, Margo removed her covers and bare feet touched the cold wooden floor. It was extremely rare for Edith to be up before eleven on a weekend and her digital alarm clock informed the girl that it was nine in the morning. "I guess I'm not the early bird today." She mused.

The brunette jogged out of the bedroom she shared with her two younger sisters and went downstairs. She could hear Edith's loud voice over the sizzling of the bacon and whistling kettle. "What brings you up so early?" Margo asked, entering the kitchen and taking a seat in the booth beside Agnes, who had already gotten most of the jelly off of her toast on her ducky pajamas.

"I heard someone making a racket in the kitchen, so I came down to yell at whoever it was. But it was just Dave and Kevin starting to make breakfast, so I decided to stay up and advise them on what to make."

"I can see that." Margo arched an eyebrow and eyed the spread on the small table. Grilled cheeses, scrambled eggs, toast, French toast and omelets littered the surface. Bacon and sausage were still cooking in the frying pans on the stove and a tower of dishes was already stacked in the sink.

"Morning!" Dave chirped cheerfully. The tiny minion stood on a wooden stool so that he would be able to tend to the frying meat. "Peels llew?"

"Yeah." Margo answered. After four months of living with the minions, she had picked up on their speech and could understand them for the most part. "Do you need any help?"

"Nah, tog ti derevoc."

"Alright." Turning to the blonde seven-year old, Margo frowned disapprovingly. "Was it really necessary to make Dave and Kevin prepare all this food?"

"I was hungry!" Edith protested and shoved a forkful of eggs into her mouth for emphasis.

Margo rolled her eyes. Edith certainly had an appetite, but not this big. The minions were quick to give the girls what they asked for, something they weren't accustomed to. Edith delighted in this, as she never had this luxury at the orphanage. Margo was too polite and rarely asked the minions for anything, while Agnes really only asked for some tea party companions, which the minions were always grateful to do for her.

"Poka!" Kevin suddenly cried, and Margo swivelled her head towards him. The minion was standing on the kitchen counter by the toaster, which was currently smoking. "Eceip fo knuj!"

And then, before Margo could do anything to stop him, Kevin grabbed a butter knife resting beside him and jammed it in one of the toaster slots.

The reaction was instant.

Body jolting, Kevin was thrown across the room by the reaction of metal to electricity. The smoke grew thicker, rising above the group like a sullen cloud. Dave jumped off the stool and dove for the plug, yanking it out of the socket and throwing the damaged toaster out the kitchen window for good measure.

"Oh my gosh!" Margo cried, hardly heard over the screaming smoke detector. She raced over to the dazed minion and checked him over frantically. "Are you okay?"

"T'nod yrrow. M'i yako." Kevin assured her, carefully getting to his feet and cracking his back.

Margo stumbled back, stunned when Kevin instantly lit up a bright green. Edith and Agnes gaped. "Whoa," Edith breathed. "Awesome!"

"_Vhat ees going on een here?"_

Everyone jumped, whirling around to face a panicked and concerned Gru, Dr. Nefario and about a dozen minions crowded behind them in the entryway.

"There's no fire," Margo said quickly.

"Dat's good." Gru said, relieved. His heart started to pound at a normal rate, now that he knew his girls were safe. "But vhat set off de smoke detector?"

"The toaster went haywire!" Edith cried. "And then Kevin shoved a knife into it and it shocked him! He flew all the way across the room! And now he's _glowing_!"

Gru frowned at Kevin, who grinned sheepishly. "Dose safety lessons are supposed to _teach _you vhat not to do!"

"Yrros." Kevin muttered. "Togrof. On sevink ni retsaot."

"Dat's right." Gru nodded sharply.

"Dear heavens, what are you boys trying to do?" Nefario suddenly cried, directing Gru's attention to the food-laden table. "Run up Gru's grocery bill?"

"You better be planning to eat all dat." Gru said threateningly.

"We will!" Margo said quickly, not wanting the minions to get in trouble. "Nothing will be wasted."

"Alright den. We'll be down een de lab eef you need us."

"Try not to need us too much." Nefario added. He grabbed the plate of scrambled eggs from the table and the two men headed back for the lab, the gaggle of minions following after them.

"Alright, guys. We better eat up." Margo sighed and shot her sister a glare. "Especially you, Miss Greedy."

They spent the better part of an hour eating the rest of the food. Kyle was a great help, and Dave enlisted six minions to help finish off the omelets and French toast. Finally, after all the food had been cleared away, Margo and Edith (who had been forced into the chore by her older sister) helped Dave with the dishes while the still-glowing Kevin cleaned up Agnes.

As Margo scrubbed a soapy cloth over a ketchup-stained dish, she could not help but stare at Dave as he dried the dishes Edith passed to him. She had never thought much about the minions. They were simply there, just as Kyle the 'dog' was simply there. She didn't question much of what her dad did or what he owned, but she was suddenly seeing the yellow creatures in a whole new light. She wanted to know more about them.

"Dave?"

"Eh?"

"Um...where do you come from?" Margo asked carefully, thinking that this would be a good place to start.

Dave paused and glanced at the girl. "Ev'i detsixe ecnis eht gninnigeb fo emit."

Edith froze, a glass hanging underneath the running water. "You mean you've _always _existed?" She asked in awe.

Dave nodded. "Reverof."

"You're _really _old."

_And yet they act like children. _Margo could hardly wrap it around her head. The minions have existed on Earth since the very beginning! She had thought that her Uncle Nefario created them, but this was something far more than what she expected to hear.

"What did you do before you met Dad?" Edith asked eagerly.

"Devres rehto dab syug. Tub ti t'nsaw nuf gnieb a noinim...ton litnu Boss derih su."

"Wh-?" Edith started to ask but Margo jabbed her shoulder firmly. Dave had a downcast look on his face and Margo had a feeling that the time before Gru was not a pleasant experience and she didn't want to make Dave relive it.

"How did Dad get you and the others?" Margo asked. Dave smiled.

"Ll'eh tnaw ot llet uoy taht."

Dave grabbed Edith's drying towel and Margo's cloth and shooed them away. Edith grinned widely and kissed him on the head before running for the transport tube. Margo hesitated, not wanting to leave Dave all alone with the dishes.

"Go!" Dave waved Margo towards the door. "Kevin nac pleh em. _Kevin!"_

Margo smiled and kissed him on the head as well before departing, passing Kevin and Agnes in the hallway. "I'll take her," she assured the minion and took her sister by the hand.

"Where are we going?" Agnes questioned.

"To the lab." Margo answered, entering the room that held the transport tube. "We're going to see if Dad will tell us a story."

"Ooh! What kind of story?" Agnes asked eagerly.

"One about the minions."

"Yay!"

Margo smiled at her sister's enthusiasm and activated the tube. Soon they were in the depths of the ground, in a brightly lit metal lab with hundreds of scurrying minions. Edith was waiting for them and together they set off in search of their father.

"Hi, Daddy!" Agnes greeted upon spotting Gru at a lab table with Dr. Nefario. "Hi, Uncle Nefario!"

"Gurls." Gru smiled warmly at them. "Vhat can I do for you?"

"We want you to tell us a story about the minions." Agnes smiled cheerfully.

Surprised, Gru and Nefario exchanged looks. "Dere's a story I haven't told een a vhile." Gru mused.

"Dave told us that they've existed since the beginning of time." Margo extended her arms and gestured at all the bustling yellow creatures. "Serving bad guys."

"Dat's true." Gru nodded. "Now, dey vork for me."

"How many of them?" Margo asked curiously.

Nefario cracked a smile. "The entire lot of them."

"All 10,400." Gru confirmed with a mock-sigh.

Stunned, Margo actually climbed up on the lab table and squinted as far as she could see.

For the first time, she noticed an endless stream of chatting, excited minions. "10,400." She echoed, hardly believing it.

"Those are a lot of cousins." Edith whispered, eyes wide.

"Why do you have all of them?" Margo asked.

This time, Gru's sigh was real. It was a sad sigh, one that promised that the reason why Gru had the entire minion population under his employ would not be a good one. "De minions, bless dere souls, are not exactly vhat bad guys look for een a minion. Dey mean well, but dey can get carried away. Missiles explode, chemicals spill, inventions break down, because dey sometimes get too excited."

"But that's a good thing! It means they like what they do and are enthusiastic about it."

"And I was de only one who noticed dis." Gru said softly. "So many minions were fired because their enthusiasm vas too much. Dere childishness vas mocked and rejected."

"But I like them." Agnes said in a small voice, not understanding how people could dislike her friends.

Gru scooped Agnes up and nuzzled her nose. "Dat's very good, keeten. Dere ees no reason why you shouldn't like dem."

"They can be crazy little beasts, that's for sure." Nefario mused. "And they fight amongst each other much too often. But they do a good job, even if their screw-ups cost us an arm and a leg. Most villains weren't willing to look past that. But Gru was."

Margo climbed down from the lab table and stood beside Edith as Gru began to tell the story they wanted to hear. "The first minion I met vas Phil. He had been kicked out, forced to find shelter een de bitter winter and search for a new master. I vas very young at de time, an up-and-rising villain vith vild dreams. I had heard about dese minions, but had never actually seen one until I took a stroll through Central Park one night een New York. I had been visiting de big city, hoping to get inspired. Phil vas sleeping on a bench, cold and shivering. I knew instantly vho he vas, and hired him dere and den."

"Just like that?" Margo asked.

"I needed help, and eet vould be a vhile before I vould meet your Uncle Nefario." Gru cast a smile at the elder man. "Phil vas so eager and so full of life. He helped me come up with some grand plans. He showed abilities dat I didn't know minions had-such as dere ability to glow een de dark, dere durability, hacking skills and dey can learn almost anything on de spot."

"Dave said that life before you wasn't fun." Margo said carefully. "What did he mean?"

"Dose vho did keep de minions around mistreated them." Gru said softly, a dark expression crossing his features. "Eet ees lucky dey are so durable. De only signs of de abuse dey faced were bruises and cuts."

Agnes burst into tears, extremely saddened that people in the world would want to hurt the cute, playful creatures she called her friends. Gru held her close and patted her back soothingly. "Dere, dere, keeten. All de minions are safe and happy now."

Margo swallowed, her throat tight. "How did all of them come to you?"

"I suppose de vord spread." Gru mused. "Some minions I met on my travels, some came to me. Before I knew eet, een de short span of six years, all de minions on de Earth had come to me. Believe eet or not, I named every one of dem."

"And that's why you can remember all their names so easily." Margo whispered. "Because you named them yourself."

"That's really cool." Edith voiced. "You saved them."

"I think, een a way, dey saved me as well." Gru grinned.

Agnes' cries had stopped by this point and she rubbed her eyes. "Can I go play wif them?" She asked.

Gru laughed and kissed her forehead. "I think dey vould like dat." He set the girl on the ground and she immediately raced for the nearest group of minions with Edith following behind.

"Dad?" Margo asked.

"Yes, keeten?"

"What made you give them a chance when no one else would?"

"I knew vhat eet vas like not being believed een." Gru answered honestly. "Not having someone villing to give you a chance. I did not vant to be dat person. So I gave dem a chance."

He scanned the bustling lab, a proud smile crossing his face as he witnessed his minions working hard and interacting with each other.

"And I vill never regret eet."

**I know there's a minion prequel film coming out next year, and a line in the plot says that the minions have existed since the beginning of time, serving bad guys and destroying them through their ineptitude. I kind of wanted to make a one-shot off of that, since I read somewhere that Gru has ten thousand and four hundred minions working for him.**

**Since I really don't know how to write minion-speak, I just wrote the words backwards :P  
Remember kids, don't stick things in toasters.  
Review please, but no flames!**


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